GQ Playlist: Charanjit Singh

The original hipster DJ on disco music, performing in Bollywood and what gets a crowd going

Sessions musician and recently anointed DJ Charanjit Singh was a hipster long before the word was even invented. Inspired by the disco music that RD Burman and Bappi Lahiri were making in the Eighties, Singh created Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat – a seemingly prescient 1982 recording of music that sounded a lot like the acid house that would come out of Chicago five years later.

In 2010, the re-emergence of Charanjit Singh, as one magazine article calls it, led to this septuagenarian playing at some of the coolest parties and clubs in India and across Europe. This weekend, he will spin a set at Magnetic Fields in Rajasthan – the latest destination festival in India – and he expects to find inspiration for a new folk disco album there.

Disco is back, thanks to Daft Punk, and Giorgio Moroder has begun DJ-ing again – he played in a Vienna club recently – and you’re about to play at Magnetic Fields. Which other DJ from your era would you like to see play again? Disco is what we heard through Pancham da (RD Burman) and Bappi Lahiri. I follow a little bit of music here and there but I follow my own style. I don’t know if disco is making a comeback, can’t say. But what DJs play is different from what I do. My music is based on raga. I can only play the raga one way. But people only care for a good beat, they don’t know about raga and taal.

Have you been approached to make music for a new Bollywood movie? No, I haven’t. The Indian film industry is not always the nicest place to work in. When I was working in the Eighties, I had to do the work, others would get the credit. What Bollywood music directors do today is fusion. They just mix different types of music, something from here, something from there. Disco music in the Seventies-Eighties was great. People like Bappi da, Pancham da. Nowadays they don’t make lasting music.

Any collaborations with Rajasthani musicians coming up at Magnetic Fields? I’m thinking of working with folk songs on a new album. India has so many languages, so many different folk songs. There’s Punjabi, Marathi… Rajasthan has great folk music. The album will be called Folk Disco.

Which was your first live performance? In December 2010, a very small performance was organised in Bangalore – hardly a hundred people. We are singers, we don’t do shows like this. We didn’t have any those original instruments anymore with us. People liked it, people were dancing but it was more like a demonstration not a proper show.

Were you surprised that you were asked to play at Magnetic Fields? Surprised, yes. Now let’s see what the results are. We’re a little worried – this music is classical music with disco beats. This isn’t filmi disco music. It’s not what DJs play. Abroad, people lose themselves to the music thanks to whatever they take. They don’t even let me take a break between changing the raga.